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MERLE TRAVIS

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Audio files are DELIBERATELY encoded "low-fi" to enable faster streaming and are intended as "illustrations" and "appetizers" only.
Official and "hi-fi" recordings can (and should) be purchased at your local record dealer or through a number of web-based companies, like CDNow.

MERLE TRAVIS SONG COVERED BY DYLAN:

  • DOWNLOAD & LISTEN (REAL AUDIO, 441 KB)
    (Boston, MA, Nov 21, 1975)

    • The song was originally recorded by Merle Travis on Aug 8, 1946 and released by Capitol on Merle's 1947 album "Folk Songs of the Hills" (reissued with additional tracks as "Back Home", Dec 1957).

    The "Back Home" album (in its entirety) is available on Bear Family Records BCD 15 636 AH ("Folk Songs of the Hills: Back Home / Songs of the Coalmines", 1993).

    "Dark As a Dungeon" can also be found on several Merle Travis compilation albums.

    For an extensive scholarly treatise on Merle Travis' coal mining songs, check out the chapters "Two by Travis" and "Nine Pound Hammer" of Archie Green's Only a Miner: Studies in Recorded Coal-Mining Songs (University of Illinois Press, 1972).

    DOWNLOAD AND LISTEN TO AN EXCERPT OF MERLE TRAVIS' SONG
    (REAL AUDIO FORMAT, 67 KB)

    To order available recordings right from this site:
    CDnow's Country/Folk section!

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